Fitzgerald Eamon, Parent Carine, Kee Michelle Z L, Meaney Michael J
Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health, Douglas Research Centre, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2021 Feb 12;15:635304. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.635304. eCollection 2021.
Pre-natal exposure to acute maternal trauma or chronic maternal distress can confer increased risk for psychiatric disorders in later life. Acute maternal trauma is the result of unforeseen environmental or personal catastrophes, while chronic maternal distress is associated with anxiety or depression. Animal studies investigating the effects of pre-natal stress have largely used brief stress exposures during pregnancy to identify critical periods of fetal vulnerability, a paradigm which holds face validity to acute maternal trauma in humans. While understanding these effects is undoubtably important, the literature suggests maternal stress in humans is typically chronic and persistent from pre-conception through gestation. In this review, we provide evidence to this effect and suggest a realignment of current animal models to recapitulate this chronicity. We also consider candidate mediators, moderators and mechanisms of maternal distress, and suggest a wider breadth of research is needed, along with the incorporation of advanced -omics technologies, in order to understand the neurodevelopmental etiology of psychiatric risk.
产前暴露于急性母体创伤或慢性母体应激会增加日后患精神疾病的风险。急性母体创伤是不可预见的环境或个人灾难的结果，而慢性母体应激与焦虑或抑郁有关。研究产前应激影响的动物研究大多在孕期使用短暂的应激暴露来确定胎儿易感性的关键时期，这种范式与人类急性母体创伤具有表面效度。虽然了解这些影响无疑很重要，但文献表明，人类的母体应激通常从受孕前到妊娠期都是慢性且持续的。在本综述中，我们提供了这方面的证据，并建议重新调整当前的动物模型以重现这种慢性状态。我们还考虑了母体应激的候选介导因素、调节因素和机制，并建议需要更广泛的研究，同时纳入先进的组学技术，以便了解精神疾病风险的神经发育病因。
